Specialist insurer Beazley and Lloyd’s coverholder Risk Cooperative have collaborated with the Bitfury Group to develop blockchain-based system for crisis insurance and risk management.

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The partners are working with the innovation team behind Emercoin, an emerging leader in decentralized, secure services for businesses.

In rapid-response crisis situations, organisations in the insurance, risk management and response chain need access to a single source of accurate, real-time information to begin activating an insurance policy.

A blockchain-based system can provide this single source of truth by capturing all transactions and data to provide a single, consistent view of a policy. By using this technology, insurers and their service providers can react more quickly and effectively to support communities in crisis.

This ground-breaking project has begun with the creation of a permissioned blockchain for all entities to share information about an insurance policy in real time, while protecting the historical accuracy of the contract. Using cutting edge threat intelligence technology, which responds to and captures data on over 200 threat types, the partners then plan to develop smart contracts, event logs and notification services.

Risk Cooperative CEO Dante Disparte said the partnership’s ultimate goal is to enable organizations to act quickly and effectively in times of crisis.

Disparte said: “Our clients trust us to protect them against risk and act swiftly when required.

“A blockchain-based risk registry will allow many processes to be streamlined and automated, and, more importantly, we can respond in the most effective way possible to the critical needs of individuals, organizations and communities.”

Bitfury CEO Valery Vavilov said: “Blockchain is synonymous with trust. It can digitize trust in a process, trust in a system and trust between parties.

“By building a ‘digital oracle’ for insurance policies, we can prioritize the needs of policyholders, while making the insurance process much more efficient.”

Beazley political violence underwriter Chris Parker said: “Creating a technology-enabled approach for our physical security coverage is the first step in transforming the way that Beazley supports its clients in times of crisis. It creates a virtuous circle of transparency and accountability for all parties over the lifetime of an insurance policy. It has enormous potential to be truly transformative.”

Emercoin chief technology officer Oleg Khovayko said “Emercoin is an emerging leader in blockchain services that will help create innovative solutions for the insurance industry. We are pleased to be part of a team that is transforming the way we do business and deliver services for customers.”